Pushing Rope

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Colbert Loses It

Mark Foley's Movie Debut

Mark Foley had a cameo role as a Republican congressman in the movie The Librarians. The film is also known as Strike Force. It's one of those movies that goes straight to video and late nite cable.

Foley hires William Forsythe to rescue his daughter. Burt Reynolds and the once super hot Erika Eleniak are part of the cheesy action mayhem. Maf54 plays Republican Congressman Fairchild. This is Foley's big scene.

FOLEY: [Eyes clenched] "Oh, I missed you too, baby."GIRL: "There were a lot of bad men."FOLEY: "I know, baby, but it's all over now [deep sigh]. God, I love you."GIRL: "I love you too, Daddy."

Actor Jerry Ascione worked on the flick. He explains on the Internet Movie Database message board just how bad the film was. I'm fairly sure it's Jerry Ascione because who would actually pretend to be him or take credit for being in this movie. Think about it.

I am sorry to say, I was a part of this movie playing a Techno Boy. We filmed this in Feb. 2000. All was shot in Florida, our scenes were shot in West Palm Beach. The production company is called Global Pictures One. They are the most unorganized low budget company out there. There was money problems and union problems from the start, it is a miracle this film even got released. Lions Gate is getting pretty desperate. The acting was almost as bad as the script. Mike Kirton, a B film stunt man tried to make a movie with William Forsythe, and you see the product. Rumors were that it was shot on a 1 to 2 million dollar budget. The only good part was that it was shot on 35mm. The film was released on a different title (probably because of selling problems) "Strike Force" on Nov. 9th, 2004. For the ridiculous price of $15.99 you can get it at Best Buy. Don't rush to get it, there will be plenty of copies when you get there. I am ashamed to admit I own a copy. Jerry Ascione

Katherine Harris To Release Tell All Book

BARTOW, Fla. - Katherine Harris, who is trying to become a U.S. senator, says she is writing a tell-all about the many people who have wronged her. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to: the Republican leaders who didn't want her to run, the press that has covered her troubled campaign, and the many staffers who have quit her employ, whom she accuses of colluding with her opponent.

Harris say, ""I've been writing it all year. It's going to be a great book."

I have no doubt.

There is also the amusing tidbit that former campaign manager Jim Dornan programmed his cell phone to play The Exorcist theme when Harris called.

Quote of the Day

"We got this free market, and I admit, I was speaking out in Minnesota -- my hometown, in fact -- and guy stood up in the audience, said, 'Mr. Friedman, is there any free trade agreement you'd oppose?' I said, 'No, absolutely not.' I said, 'You know what, sir? I wrote a column supporting the CAFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade initiative. I didn't even know what was in it. I just knew two words: free trade.'"

Tammy Harman Interview

Tammy Harman is running for Hillsborough County Soil & Water Conservation Board. Harman is running against C. Dennis Carlton.

I know you are running in a non-partisan race. For disclosure journalistic purposes. Who is this group you wrote about on your website? "I have been a volunteer officer for a community group since 2000 (out of respect for this Non-Partisan race, I have chosen not to name this Partisan community group)."

Harman: The community group I mention on my website – the Green Party of Hillsborough. I have been active with them since 2000.

Explain why you decided to run as a no party candidate.

Harman: This race is Non-Partisan. I have been interested in the environment and politics for a very long time and so this race seemed like a good fit for me.

This is a smaller race. As the Governor and Senate races helped or hurt getting the word out?

Harman: I believe the Governor and Senate races have helped generate interest in the local races across the board and that they will help get people out to the polls.

What are some of the environmental problems facing Hillsborough County?

Harman: Water quantity and quality, pollution run-off into our waterways, high-level of car emissions due to lack of mass transit, overdevelopment to name a few.

What is your position on how growth management should be handled.

Harman: I am an advocate of Smart Growth - urban infill before rural sprawl and appropriate impact fees on new development.

On your campaign website you wrote, "As I was researching the office of Soil and Water Conservation Board, I ran into a great deal of difficulty trying to learn about the Boards projects, where they met and so on. " What about the Florida Sunshine law? Does it not apply to board meetings?

Harman: Florida Sunshine Law does apply to the Board because the Board is elected by the voters so I plan to bring it into full Sunshine. Right now, it could be argued that the Board is operating somewhat in the dark or at least not doing all they can do to make themselves accessible.

Chemical pesticides are a profitable business. How can you convince politicians, who get lobby money from this industry, to switch to organic farming?

Harman: Of course when it comes to change, you have to show people how it will affect their wallet. Instead of focusing on convincing politicians of anything, I would like to have focused workshops that can show farmers and the community at-large how incorporating sustainable farming methods can benefit them and the environment. The Green movement is sweeping the nation. Many more people are demanding Organic produce and so the supply/demand ratio will soon tip in our favor and make growing Organic crops, both more profitable for the farmers and more affordable for the consumer.

What kind of steps would you take to help conserve soil and reduce pollution? A long policy piece would be helpful for the voters.

Harman: Education will be our most powerful tool. Continuing and expanding the environmental school grade programs, holding public workshops to inform farmers about all of the Best Management Practices programs that they can participate in and creating a detailed website with information on how farmers and individuals can help conserve our natural resources (ideas I will encourage – xeriscaping, the use of reclaimed water in landscaping, the use of natural and environmentally safe home gardening products and household products, and much more).

The Board plays an advisory role to the Soil and Water Conservation District and the Hillsborough County Commission. I want to have a ground up influence on the environmental decisions up for a vote at the Hillsborough County Commission level. I plan to rally the Board around environmental issues in general and for us to use our joint influence on our elected officials.

You have an Anthropology background. Explain the excavation project you were part of in Israel?

Harman: For two consecutive years, one month each time, I volunteered on an excavation project in Israel, sponsored by USF and led by Dr. James Strange. The site is an ancient Metropolis called Sepphoris, which is also an archaeological park open to the public. We excavated the remains of what was believed to be a large market complex and uncovered many interesting artifacts, such as coins, pottery, glass, a reflection pool and armor. It was a fantastic experience.

How long have you been with WMNF?

Harman: I have been a member of WMNF since about 1999.

How much oversite will the OofSWB have over phosphate issues?

Harman: No direct oversite from my understanding. Again, I plan to have our say on more broad perspective environmental issues but the reaches of the Board is limited to an advisory role. However, I will encourage the use of phosphate free household detergents and the use of low phosphorous fertilizers for home gardening and commercial farming to reduce the amount of phosphorous runoff into our waterways.

Explain how you are more qualified than your opponent?

Harman: I feel I am the better candidate because I am genuinely concerned about the environment. My volunteer experience as a farmhand with Sweetwater Organic Farm (2005-2006 Season) and working on environmental issues with the Green Party (since 2000) has given me a love for the land. For example, I chaired a Recycling committee that helped to expand recycling services in the City of Tampa. My current position at an engineering firm as an Assistant Planner has given me experience of organizing public meetings (this knowledge will serve me well when organizing educational public workshops) and researching environmental impacts of transportation improvements. I am currently seeking my Masters in Public Administration and I feel that this is laying a solid foundation for me to become a well-rounded civil servant. I believe my talents and energy will be an asset to the Board and look forward to serving the citizens of Hillsborough in this way.

Why Florida Bloggers Haven't Covered the Ralph Arza Story

In rated news: Arza is fighting calls for his resignation. The Florida House Select Committee will hold hearings tomorrow. Democrats will walk out if Arza doesn't resign. Jeb Bush wants Azra to step down. Short answer: no one is in Arza's corner.

Someone mentioned to me why more bloggers didn't write about the Arza story. The answer is Florida is filled with a lot of shitty bloggers riding the progressive blogger bandwagon. How dare I saw Out In Leftfield is not a good blog? Kate Hudson's love life is so much more important than the Ralph Arza story. Sticks of Fire will take exceeption if I say they don't cover politics. And openly talk about our offline emails and hold me to the off-the-record promise. Sticks will spend post after post discussing lesbian cheerleaders and strippers. Examples like that is why bloggers haven't covered the Ralph Arza story.

I found out about the story from Mark Lane's blog. So he deserves much credit for bringing this story forward.

Fun Lovin' Criminals

I was reading Crooks and Liars and came across this video with G.Gordon Liddy as the Fox News criminal Republican Point Of View. Sometimes it can take me hours of drawing until I am satisfied with how a caricature looks. G. Gordon Liddy took me about one minute.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Quote of the Day

For fighting the war on terror, the Democrats just follow a simple philosophy: just say no. When it comes to listening to the terrorists, what's the Democrats' answer? It's just say no. When it comes to detaining terrorists, what is the Democrats' answer? Just say no.

It's about not giving the President unlimited powers to trample over civil liberties. Not being nicer to terrorists. Benjamin Franklin said, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." He was fully aware of the dangers of the executive branch becoming to powerful. The White House wouldn't have kept their wiretapping deals with phone companies and prisons secret if they didn't know they weren't illegal. Maher Arar was detained by the United States. Sent to Syria and tortured. It turns out they had the wrong guy. Canadian RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli has publicly apologized for Arar's detention. The White House refuses to comment on Arar. This is why Democrats are against giving Bush too much power.

Double Oh Crap

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear -- especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

Paul Burgess Writes From the Heart

Here is an op-ed written by former George W. Bush speechwriter Paul Burgess.

I have also grown to hate certain people of genuine accomplishment like Ted Turner, who, by his own contention, cannot make up his mind which side of the terror war he is on; I hate the executives at CNN, Turner's intellectual progeny, who recently carried water for our enemies by broadcasting their propaganda film portraying their attempts to kill American soldiers in Iraq.

I now hate Howard Dean, the elected leader of the Democrats, who, by repeatedly stating his conviction that we won't win in Iraq, bets his party's future on our nation's defeat.

I hate the Democrats who, in support of this strategy, spout lie after lie: that the president knew in advance there were no WMD in Iraq; that he lied to Congress to gain its support for military action; that he pushed for the democratization of Iraq only after the failure to find WMD; that he was a unilateralist and that the coalition was a fraud; that he shunned diplomacy in favor of war.

Muckraking Fox News Interview With Dick Cheney

CAVUTO: Your wife, Mr. Vice President, created a little bit of a stir in an appearance on a rival news network last week, taking exception to the way that network portrayed the economy, the government, that things are going to hell in a hand basket. I’m sort of paraphrasing here. Actually, she was much more to the point that I’m being. What did you think of that?

CHENEY: I thought it was great. We refer to it around the house as the slapdown. And she was very tough, but she was very accurate and very aggressive.

It's easy to see why Cheney would want to do interviews with friendly media. The little problem with that is he still manages to insert his foot in his mouth. The one good thing about the interview is it's gives Neil Cavuto less time to interview porn stars. Fortunately, there are plenty of people willing to feed the tacky sex news market.

Losing My Republican Religion

WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign today released a new nationwide poll that shows the aggressively coordinated attempts by anti-gay right-wing leaders and anti-gay groups to brand the Mark Foley scandal as a gay issue are a resounding failure.

The new, nationwide poll shows that, by a 2-to-1 margin, voters believe that “this type of behavior is typical of politicians” over “this type of behavior is typical of gay men.” The poll also showed support for either civil unions or marriage for same-sex couples at 66 percent, which is consistent with other polls on the same question.

For the record: Human Rights Campaign is a pro-gay organization. The poll leans 27 to 22 Democratic. The sampling is rather small. There is a 34 to 25 conservative to liberal advantage. The poll reflects people's cynicism with politicians. Nothing surprising about that. What is interesting is that 48 percent of those polled were not evangelical or fundamentalists. A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey sheds some light on this.

A national survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life on Aug. 24 shows ambivalence about the relationship of religion to politics and social issues, and unhappiness with extreme positions. The public is not polarized into liberal and conservative camps, the poll suggests, but yearns to find middle ground on contentious social issues.

There is distress about both ends of the political spectrum: 49 percent of American adults say conservatives are too assertive about trying to impose their religious values on the nation, yet 69 percent say liberals go too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government.

Americans want to seek spirituality in it's many forms. Just not with politics involved.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Gay Marriage Wedge

"Pro-traditional-marriage organizations ought to give a distinguished service award to the New Jersey Supreme Court," said the Rev. Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Land and other conservative religious leaders predicted that the court's 4 to 3 ruling, which was handed down Wednesday, would boost turnout of social conservatives in the midterm elections, particularly in the eight states that have constitutional amendments against same-sex marriage on the Nov. 7 ballot.

"I have to think there are Democratic strategists out there thinking the words of the old Japanese admiral: 'I fear all we've done is wake a sleeping giant,' " said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based advocacy group. "They were coasting into an election with a Republican base with dampened enthusiasm. This brings it all back home to the base, what this election is about."

It's all about electing Republicans, baby.

There is a sign that people are getting wise to this. James Dobson is no longer the hottest ticket.

The next two rallies, in St. Paul, Minn., on Oct. 3 and Nashville on Oct. 16, were moved from stadium-size venues to smaller auditoriums, and the tickets, which had been on sale for $7, were given away. Each event also drew about 3,000 people, according to Focus on the Family spokesman Paul Hetrick.

"We don't gauge the success by the number of people," Hetrick said, adding: "I don't think it's the rallies [that flopped]. I just think it's more of a challenge to enthuse people about midterm elections."

Joe Negron Wins in First District Court of Appeal

Elections supervisors in Mark Foley's former district received permission from a Tallahassee appeals court Friday to post notices stating a vote for the disgraced Republican congressman will go to replacement candidate Joe Negron.

The Florida Democratic Party said it would not appeal the decision, ending a two-week court battle.

"Confused voters should not be required to guess as to how their vote will be counted, or be forced to question poll workers and rely on the potentially inconsistent, incomplete, or partial information," the appeals court stated.

Writing for a three-judge panel, District Judge James Wolf said Florida law allows poll workers to display informational notices, so long as they are impartial and do not favor a specific candidate. The unanimous ruling reversed an Oct. 28 decision barring the signs.

G, I want Negron to lose and think he should be on the ballot. It's a seperate issue, but the 21 day law is silly. What if a candidate dies.

The issues of signs, there is this from Ferris's ruling.

"The Legislature could have adopted various options; it could have required that the name of the new nominee be included on the ballot, or could have mandated the posting of a notice informing electors of the replacement, as Kentucky Legislature did."

The thing about the sign is one candidate feels it will give an advantage to the other. If I'm Tim Mahoney then I'll demand for signs if Negron gets them. It becomes a partisan issue of fairness. Seriously, Negron and Mahoney have received much media attention because of FoleyGate. If people haven't heard of either them now then they never will.

The Florida Legislature needs to address the ballot issue if a candidate drops out or dies. Reprinting the ballots is hard and this state doesn't have a great track record for elections. (Dead people voting in Miami.) Deal with the problem fairly.

***

A Reuters article states that the First District Court of Appeal ruling means that if the Negron signs go up; others candidates in the race must also be on the sign. That is fair. Mr. G and myself were in agreement on that point. Now we get get onto the election. Hopefully, with no more hassles.

What the court did was give the 16th discrist a temporary injunction. Meaning, that for this one instance they could place the signs. The bad news for Republicans is that Secretary of State Sue Cobb received another smack down.

In applying these standards, we determine that the email notice provided by theSecretary of State on October 3, 2006, failed to meet the impartiality requirementsand, therefore, affirm the trial court’s order precluding posting of, or delivery to,voters of said notice within the polling places of the relevant Congressional district.

Where the court took exception is Cobb's notice did not mention Democrat Tim Mahoney or independent Emmie Ross. Whoops, Cobb did it again.

What the ruling came down to:

Foley’s name will appear on the ballot but will be a placeholder for Negron’s,creating a complexity in voting that must be made known to voters to enable them tocast an informed and intelligent ballot. Without some explanation, a ballot that omits the name of the legal candidate leads to doubt and uncertainty about the true will of the people.

The Court wanted to take the burden off of Election official having to explain the Foley ballot. They believe that may lead to partisan opinion.

I have no problems with this ruling. And this is coming from someone who wants Negron to lose.

Missing Weapons

The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

These weapons account for 1/25 of the weaponary supplied to Iraqi security forces. The article states that most serial numbers were not recorded. How much you wanna bet some of those weapons got into the hands of insurgents.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

St. Petersburg Times Poll

The new St. Petersburg Times poll has some good news for Florida Democrats. Democrats Walter “Skip” Campbell and Alex Sink are enjoying leads in the CFO and Attorney General races. The poll had a margin of error is 3.5 percent.

Chief Financial Officer

Alex Sink (D) - 41 percentTom Lee (R) - 35 percent

Attorney General

Walter "Skip" Campbell (D) - 41 percentBill McCollum (R) - 36 percent

There have been earlier indications that Lee was in trouble. Sink has been a better fundraiser in the later stages of the campaign. Lee doing so pooorly has been the biggest surprise to me.

I try not to read too much into polls. With the exception of the Senate race (and maybe the Governor's), all other races are still in play. What leading in the polls can do is give a candidate momentum. Bill Nelson has been ahead for so long that people just assume he will win. That factor helps Crist. The other races are smaller and voters don't know the candidates as well. These races come down to how voters feel about Republicans and get-out-the-vote activism.

A criminal investigation has been launch. Marco Rubio has asked Arza to step down. Allan Bense has launched an inquiry. Over in Bizarro World, Jeb Bush refuses to ask Arza to step down. Republicans are trying to figure a way to get rid of Arza and Jeb views this as a partisan issue. Amazing.

No-Brainer

Earlier, White House press secretary Tony Snow denied that Cheney had endorsed water boarding. (Watch Cheney explain that the U.S. has a "fairly robust interrogation program without torture" -- 1:09 )

"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," Snow said. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."

Hennen asked, "Would you agree that a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" Cheney replied, "It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president 'for torture.'"

Snow is lying through his teeth. To quote his boss: "This is a no-brainer."

Your Blog Can Get You Fired

The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, has fired an employee who admitted to the first publication on a Web site of Florida Rep. Mark Foley's e-mails to a former male page.

The e-mails and later disclosures of sexually explicit computer messages from the Florida Republican to other male pages sparked a campaign-season scandal that threatens the GOP's majority in Congress.

"He inappropriately used Human Rights Campaign resources. He was fired," organization Vice President David Smith said of the employee. "The Human Rights Campaign believes in being very aboveboard in our political activity."

The first blogger that (I know of) who published email allegations is Stop Sexual Predators. The Herald Tribune incorrectly states the first Foley post was September 24, 2006. It was September 21. The SSP blogger was exposed by the blogger at Stop October Surprises. He threatened to expose SSP's location if he didn't reveal himself. The hysterical hypocrisy is the SOS blogger refused to reveal his identity for the Herald Tribune article.

John Kolbe In Trouble

It appears that former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl told the ethics committee that John Kolbe was a problem.

A source close to former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl told ABC News that Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) was one of a small number of "problem members" of Congress who page program supervisors complained spent too much time socializing with pages, taking them to dinner or sporting events outside of official duties.

Mark Foley was also on the list.

The source said Trandahl frequently cautioned both congressmen that "adults should hang out with adults, pages should hang out with pages," a message Trandahl also conveyed to pages during their orientation.

Kolbe is the only openly gay Republican in the House. Kolbe is also under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix. Kolbe took two former pages on a camping trip. An adult was offended by Kolbe's "fawning, petting and touching."

"I know there are a number of inquiries underway, and we're cooperating fully with all those inquiries," said Kolbe.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Rumsfeld Wants Everyone to "Back Off"

This whole exchange between Donald Rumsfeld and the press has to be read to be believed.

Q Sir, what I don't understand about the benchmark plan, if we can call it that, is what happens if and when the Iraqi government fails to meet the timelines, projections, whatever you want to call them, for some of the major benchmarks? I mean, we've been told that they're not given ultimatums. We've been told -- but we've also been told by the president in recent days that U.S. patience is not unlimited. So there's -- but I don't understand; there must be consequences or responses built into this plan. Can you address that at all?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, it's a political season, and everyone's trying to make a little mischief out of this and make -- turn it into a political football and see if we can't get it on the front page of every newspaper and find a little daylight between what the Iraqis say or someone in the United States says or somebody else in the United States says.

And I mean, it is not complicated. I've explained it two or three times. The president did an excellent job of explaining it yesterday.

And the situation is this; it is -- it is that the United States, in the persons of our ambassador and the embassy and General Casey and his team, have been, over a period of time, in continuous discussions with the Iraqi government at various levels, and they've been discussing the way forward through the rest of this year and next year. That's a perfectly logical thing for them to do.

As they do that, they then discuss, well, when might something happen? And it isn't a date and it isn't a penalty if it doesn't. I mean, you're trying to add a degree of formality and finality and punishment to something. My goodness.

You could sit down today and take the remaining 16 provinces in the country and say, well, when -- today, when do we -- the U.S. and the Iraqis -- government -- think that this province might move over to the governance of the Iraqis instead of the multinational force? What about this province and that province? And you could lay out and say, well, in this quarter or this two- or three-month period that might -- we might be able to do that, and lay it out. And as I've said before, in some cases you may beat it; you may do it faster than that. In some cases you may do it later than that. In some cases you may do it exactly when you thought and then find it didn't work out, and then you'd have to go back in, take it back, fix it, and then give it back again.

Now, you're looking for some sort of a guillotine to come flowing down if some date isn't met. That is not what this is about. This is complicated stuff. It's difficult. We're looking out into the future. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty.

So you ought to just back off, take a look at it, relax, understand that it's complicated, it's difficult, that honorable people are working on these things together; there isn't any daylight between them. They will be discussing this and discussing that; they may have a change here or a change there, but it will get worked out. And the value of it, in my view, is that you are, in effect, establishing priorities. You're saying, among the coalition and the Iraqi government, that the goal is to kind of get from where we are to there, and "there" is having the Iraqis govern their country and provide for their own security. And the way to get there is in steps. And we've already passed over two provinces to the Iraqis, and we've already passed over some divisions to the Iraqi military chain of command.

But it's not just security, it is, as I've said, the reconciliation process is going to have three or four major milestones. You can't know when you're going to find agreement with the Sunnis and the Kurds and the Shi'a on some of these complicated things. You can say, "Well, we'd like to try to do it in the first quarter, or the second quarter," and then you can, you know, work hard to try to achieve that, but you may or may not achieve that. This is -- the situation in Iraq is not going to be solved militarily, obviously. It's political, it's economic, and it's security, and all of those have to go forward. And therefore, it makes it that much -- it's multidimensional; it's that much more difficult to predict when any one of those pieces will, in fact, arrive at what today, sitting here in October of 2006, looks like would be desirable or possible.

And so this is something they're going to work through. And I wouldn't waste a lot of newsprint trying to find daylight between everybody on this, or try to find things that are wrong with it. I think -- the idea of saying, "We're here, we want to get there, here are some steps to get there. Let's go ahead and tell the world that we think those are the steps we want to get there, we've kind of agreed on them," and then see if we can't do it. And then, of course, you can point with alarm and say, "Oh my goodness, you didn't make it." And you can have a front-page article and everyone will have a good time. And we'll say, "That's right, you didn't make it." And then the ones that we make earlier than we thought, we'll never see it on the front page.

"Everyone will have a good time"? Mr. Rumsfeld, please stop trying to wear a crown of thorns; because you don't play the martyr well. You do have a shot at dinner theatre. So over-the-top. So hammy. William Shatner would cringe. It's not the Fourth Estate's problem you have no credibility. You did say you knew the weapons of mass destruction are "around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Then you denied making that statement. Only to have it quoted back to you by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern. Rumsfeld also denied using the term "immediate threat" to describe Iraq's weapons program

Rumsfeld: You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase immediate threat. I didn't, the president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's what's happened.

Schieffer: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that?

Rumsfeld: I can't speak for everybody in the administration and say nobody said that.

Schieffer: The president didn't say that?

Rumsfeld: If you have any citations, I'd like to see them.

Friedman: Right here it says, some have argued ‑‑ this is you speaking, some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraqi is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons, I would not be so certain.

Rumsfeld: And ‑‑

Friedman: That's close to imminent.

Rumsfeld: Well, I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate.

Friedman: No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people, and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

It's easy to see why Rumsfeld doesn't want to go on record about deadlines.

There is good reason to believe deadlines can not be met. The Iraq army does not have a be-all-you-can-be attitude.

"All the soldiers now, they don't care about the country. They care about the money," said Col. Alaa Kata al-Kafage. "After (soldiers) get paid and save a little bit of money, they leave." Iraqi enlisted men can leave whenever they want to. Even during combat operations. Iraq police and army men will flee or silently watch ethnic violence happen in front of them.

Corruption has run rampant in Iraq. $4.5 billion looted from state coffers. $1 billion stolen by the Iraqi defence ministry. And the kicker: Robert Stein admitted to stealing $2 billion from the Coalition Provisional Authority. Rumsfeld has been mum about all this corruption. He hasn't earned the right for anyone to "back off" him.

When Journalists Pull a MacManus

I read University of South Florida Susan A. MacManus's analysis of the midterm elections with great interest. I also wasn't surprised by her prediction.

Polls tell us that Democrats are angrier and more likely to turn out than Republicans. (Actually, the poll question wording focuses more on enthusiasm about voting than about the likelihood of turning out). It is assumed that Republican turnout will be lighter and that many will cross over and vote for Democratic candidates.

While this may be true, there are enough signs that Republicans who do plan to vote are just as angry as Democrats to make one a bit wary of these assumptions.

Nationally, Democrats are angry first and foremost with President George W. Bush sitting in the White House, followed by the War in Iraq, then corruption.

But Republicans are increasingly angry over their entire party being cast as “predators” due to the sins of former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley. They are also moved somewhat by the thought of Nancy Pelosi and other liberals in high leadership posts.

For GOPers who may cross over to vote for Democrats or just take a pass and not vote in a congressional race at all, they are most disgusted with the failure of Congress to address immigration and to control spending. The question is how many of these voters will really stray from their party when it comes right down to casting a ballot.

The most interesting unknown this election season is turnout among independent voters who tend to be young and tend not to vote in midterm elections. Yet to be discerned is the extent to which this year’s record negativity in ads and media coverage will prompt them to turn their backs on both parties and leave the election to the ardent partisans on both sides of the aisle.

Shorter Susan MacManus: Democrats and Independents are not going to turn out. Republicans will get the vote out and win the midterms. The indications are that the Christian Right will stay home November 7. A Pew Research Center poll found Democrats more excited to vote than Republicans. To illustrate how bad things have gotten for Republicans; Democrats, in South Carolina, have raised more money for out-the-vote drives.

With all this bad news for Republicans; why did MacManus view the GOP's chance through such rose-colored glasses. Because she is a professional Republican shrill. McManus has been appointed by Jeb Bush to his transition team, Florida Elections Commission and Governor's Council of Economic Advisors. Hey, no conflict of interest there. The problem is the media use her for fair and balanced analysis that is neither the former or latter. MacManus has also donated to the a Republican PAC.

Bob Norman cited a A-list of Florida political reporters who don't cite that MacManus is a Bush crony. Buddy "I'm a Republican" Nevins, William March, and former Orlando Sentinel scribe Mark Silva are guilty of doing the MacManus.

This opus co-written by March contained MacManus b.s. that's so strong that I had to hold my nose.

University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus said the issue can only help Republicans.

Besides religious voters, she said, it will also affect a larger group, ``the married vote and family vote,'' and an underestimated voting group, the disabled. About 17 percent of Florida households include a disabled person, she said.

March told Bob Norman, "I agree that it's good to identify MacManus as a Bush appointee when writing about either Bush." March admitted to Norman that he knew MacManus has worked for Bush. The Columbia Jornalism Review made note of March's use of MacManus quotes. The Norman piece was written in 2004. March still failed to mention ManManus's Bush ties in his Terri Schiavo article. He may end up getting another dubious CJR mention, again.

"I agree that it's good to identify MacManus as a Bush appointee when writing about either Bush."

So do I.

For future PR reference: when I say a reporter pulled a MacManus - that means citing a partisan as an unbiased pundit.

Someone Please Stop the Iraq Talking Points

Iraq isn"t awash in sectarian violence, . . .Most sectarian violence in Iraq is concentrated across a 30-mile radius around Baghdad, and, 90 percent of all violence in Iraq is taking place in five of the country"s 18 provinces.

The first time a rocket lands within a few yards of you in the heart of the British compound is pretty instructive. There's someone out there who wants to kill you for no better reason than you're British.

Basra may be a picnic compared with the hell of Baghdad, but even so the violence overwhelms everything.

When you can't drive into the centre of the city; when even the helicopter which brings you into the Foreign Office compound can fly only at night; when the shortest trip outside the British base needs a military escort of 18 men and a column of armoured vehicles.

Why does the the Bush administration keep treating the American people like they're stupid? What is interesting is President Bush can't seem to keep his talking points straight. Case in point.

My attitude about our – look, I'm into campaigning out there: People want to know, can you win? That's what they want to know. I mean, there's – look, there's some 25 percent or so that want us to get out, shouldn't have been out there in the first place – and that's fine. They're wrong. But you can understand why they feel that way. They just don't believe in war, and – at any cost. I believe when you get attacked and somebody declares war on you, you fight back. And that's what we're doing.

I seem to not remember Iraq declaring war on the United States. In fact, President Bush made it clear that Iraq did not attack us.

BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attack on the World Trade Center.

BUSH: Nothing. Except it’s part of — and nobody has suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September 11th is take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

Boy, the White House is so confused about what to say these days. First they dropped "stay the course" and now we are back on the Iraq responsible for 9-11 meme, again. This is enough to make a person's head explode.

Vote For Mark Foley

Mark Foley Wanted Hot Boys

At this point I think it will be harder to find male pages that Mark Foley didn't hit on.

One former page, who was not identified, told Reuters that Foley sent him e-mails when he was 16 asking about "my roommates, if I ever saw them naked." Later, the former page said Foley hinted about a job opportunity "because I was a hot boy," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Two years later, the page, now 22, said, he wrote Foley to ask about hotels in Washington. "You could always stay at my place. I’m always here, I’m always lonely, and I’m always up for oral sex," he quoted the disgraced former member of Congress as saying, reports Reuters.

The former Republican page said, "I didn’t want to piss off a member of an institution that I really revered. I figured maybe someday I will want to be involved in Congress. I didn’t want to make an enemy." It brings up a good question. The St. Petersburg Times blew off a what a former page told them. Ditto the Republican leadership. How much of this was because Foley was in a position of power and the accusations of teens weren't taken seriously?

Quote of the Day

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Republicans Bitten Back By Immigration Debate

I said before that playing the immigration card would hurt Republicans. And it may now cost the GOP to lose the midterm elections.

The Latino backlash has grown so intense that one prominent, typically pro-Republican organization, the Latino Coalition, has endorsed Democrats in competitive races this year in Tennessee, Nebraska and New Jersey. The coalition is chaired by Hector Barreto, the former administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush; its president is a former strategist for the Republican National Committee.

This was a train wreck waiting to happen. Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away; Michelle Malkin was angered that protesters accused the Minutemen of being racist. Minutemen found James Chase has gone on record stating that members of the neo-Nazi have entered the ranks and that shifty handling of funds are taking place.

"… but then they (Gilchrist and Simcox) went to Washington and picked up the two DC crooks Mary Lewis and Connie Hair and the corruption machine was off and running."

Skip Campbell: Blogging Machine

Katherine Harris Hearts John Bolton

I wasn't going to even bother writing about the latest Katherine Harris email. Wayne Garcia did and this is the money quote.

WRONG ON BOLTON: Nelson's opposition to John Bolton as UN Ambassador is an insult to a widely-esteemed public servant who is boldly standing up for U.S. interests at the UN.

This is the same Bolton who said, "If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." During the latest confirmation hearings, Senator Norm Coleman asked Bolton, "Ambassador Bolton, Now that you have been up at the UN for a while, gotten inside and seen how it works up close, have you come to think that some of your earlier views of the UN were misplaced, or think that some parts of the institution are better and other parts worse? What do you think now of the UN after being up there? Have your views changed at all?"

My British counterpart is in Sudan today – or maybe in Chad, I forget which – where he is leading a Security Council Mission to Africa which I would have gone on, except that I had made a commitment to be here some months ago and didn’t want to break that...

Harris can keep backing Bolton. The two have been major PR disasters for the Republican Party. The former will never get elected Senator and the latter will never be confirmed.

Countdown - Worst Person

The winner is Wayne Simmons.

"But the winner: former CIA agent Wayne Simmons on Fox News, saying the football stadium bomb hoax was, quote, "the perfect example of how vital the president's domestic eavesdropping program and the passage of the Military Commissions Act are." Of course they're vital, Wayne. They enable the government to spread false rumors about plots that aren't by non-terrorists that anybody over the age of 7 1/2 should have been able to see were crap, so they can try to scare people into voting Republican.

Bush Not Staying the Course On "Staying the Course"

STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he’s looking for something between “cut and run” and “stay the course.”

BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we’ve never been “stay the course,” George. We have been — we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and help achieve the goal, but we’re constantly adjusting to tactics. Constantly.

There are so many instances where I could find quotes of Bush sauying "stay the course." For instance: this April 13, 2004 press conference.

And, yet, we must stay the course, because the end result is in our nation's interest.

We'll stay the course; we'll complete the job.

We will stay the course and complete the job and you'll have what you need.

I understand why he kept saying "stay the course." When this President gets off message and has to discuss wonkish policy matters is when he gets in trouble.

Tony Snow is now trying to dig his boss out of the hole of his own creation.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 — The White House said Monday that President Bush was no longer using the phrase “stay the course” when speaking about the Iraq war, in a new effort to emphasize flexibility in the face of some of the bloodiest violence there since the 2003 invasion.

“He stopped using it,” said Tony Snow, the White House press secretary. “It left the wrong impression about what was going on and it allowed critics to say, ‘Well, here’s an administration that’s just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is,’ when, in fact, it is the opposite.”

Snow did something that Scott McClellan lacked the candor and charm to do. He admitted that Bush dropped "stay the course." McClellan would have denied it and gotten pummeled by David Gregory and Helen Thomas. Then Snow made it sound like his boss wanted to change course all along. It's spin, but served smoothly. Which makes me wonder why the White House didn't hire Snow sooner.

Watching McClellan was akin to seeing a bad karaoke singer going on night after night. Michael Wolff best described McClellan.

“The living symbol of this White House’s profound and perhaps mortal problem with language and meaning,” was the verdict of the writer Michael Wolff in a recent Vanity Fair article. “He’s Piggy in Lord of the Flies: a living victim, whose reason for being is, apparently, to shoulder public ridicule and pain . . . he’s the person nobody would ever choose to be.”

Chicago Voting Hack Test

As if there weren't enough concerns about the integrity of the vote, a non-partisan civic organization today claimed it had hacked into the voter database for the 1.35 million voters in the city of Chicago.

Bob Wilson, an official with the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project — which bills itself as a not-for-profit civic organization dedicated to the correction of election system deficiencies — tells ABC News that last week his organization hacked the database, which contains detailed information about hundreds of thousands of Chicago voters, including their Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.

Wilson said that a hacker could cause identity theft, wipe out the database, and change the precincts voter were suppose to go to. Which would have made their votes of all Chicago residents illegal. Tom Leach said the Sequoia voting machines are not part of the problem and that Social Security information is being removed to avoid identity theft.

"This is a part of the entire electronic voting program that we're depending on — computerized voter databases and electronic voting machines," Wilson said. "Any computer is subject to failure and security flaws and we have seen in electronic voting hundreds of news reports about dozens and dozens of jurisdictions where there are problems."

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Mustang Bobby's Take On the Nelson-Harris Debate.

Mustang Bobby watched the debate so the rest of us don't have to. I have a feeling his post had more fireworks than Nelson or Harris.

Summary: There were no substantial questions or answers. This wasn't so much a debate as it was a joint press conference with questions that sounded like they were from the finalists in the junior high school journalism class. (At least no one asked them who their favorite Beatle was, but if they'd gone another half-hour, I wouldn't have ruled it out.) As far as appearances, both candidates looked like they were call-backs for the auditions for the re-make of The Addams Family: Lurch and Morticia, you're up.

I agree with Bobby on Nelson's vote for the Military Commissions Act. It's inexcusable. Nelson's attempt to straddle the fence will turn out like his vote to intervene in the Terri Schiavo matter.

On Schiavo, Nelson said, "I thought I was bringing the matter to a close."

More Good News For Democrats

John Beck Rehired

Apparently, no amount of bad publicity can stop the corruption of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority. The Authority approved an amended contract with John Beck.

The new agreement works out to the Authority keeping Beck on a monthly retainer and no longer paying him by the hour. Beck was charging $175 hr. The taxpayers were footing the bill.

Beck violated Sunshine laws by have private meetings with David Hendrix and Ralph Mervine. Jeb Bush has appointed Raquel Rodriguez to review the matter.

Authority board member Bob Clark's company, Tampa Steel Erecting Company, sold stell girders to the for the Crosstown Expressway project. To say this is a conflict of interest would be putting it mildly. General council Steve Anderson was advised to find girders elsewhere. He pressed on with Clark's company.

"Not illegal," Anderson said at the time, "but might have appearance of impropriety."

The deal started before Clark came on the Authority board and finalized after he started. "Appearance of impropriety." Indeed.

Limbaugh is, as always, a complete fuckin' bore. You would think he would, at least once, research what the hell he was talking about prior to opening his fat mouth. The medication those with Parkinson's take create the over-effect of movement. Without the meds, it's as is the individual is frozen.

Write A Caption Rummy Hand Job Edition

The Dennis Hastert & Doc Hastings Connection

Here are good reasons why members of the House Ethics Committee should not oversee the Mark Foley cover up investigation. Several members are political lackeys of Dennis Hastert. The Seattle Times reports that Doc Hastings has been handpicked by Hastert to replace him. Hastert won't confirm if he has put Hastings name on the list. Hastert cites national security. I let you soak that one in.

Clay Show Loves the Environment Enough For A Photo-Op

The New York Times has a good run down of the Ron Klein and Clay Shaw race. This seat may decide which party controls the House of Representatives.

Shaw brags about supprting the environment in a campaign ad. What he fails to mention is his 28 percent rating with the League of Conservation Voters and 25 percent with Republicans for Environmental Protection. The picture of Shaw paddling the canoe is priceless.

Quinnipiac Poll: Crist & Davis

The lates Quinnipiac Poll on the Florida Governor race is rather surprising.

Crist - 46 percentDavis - 44 percent

The poll shows a dead heat. What's even more surprising is that Davis has a 14 point lead among independents. The poll was taken with 816 likely voters. This doesn't match other recent polls showing Crist leading. The poll shows that the participantsare now more familiar with Davis. Crist's recent flip-flopping on three issues have caught him heat.

The problem with the poll is these are likely voters. These people follow the news more regularly. Where Crist has the advantage is with people who have seen the candidate more. Crist has beaten Davis in the TV ad time battles. Short answer: Davis needs people to see him and fast. The one-on-one campaign style he favors has to go out the door.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Sean Hannity Tells Democrats Not to Vote

"So I'm saying, for the sake of the nation, I think you Democrats should stay home. For you there's no reason to vote. But you Republicans out there, the ones -- there's enough people in this audience to make a real, significant difference in really key important states."

And exactly how many Democrats listen to Sean Hannity? Man, he sounds desperate. I'll run the whole transcript. It's too good not to post.

***

HANNITY: Now, one other thing here. You know what? I think some of you need to stay home on Election Day. What? That's right. I think -- I know it sounds terrible. I don't want everybody to vote; I want well-informed people to vote. You know what we're gonna do on our man-on-the-street segment tomorrow, man-on-the-street Thursday? I'm gonna have three pictures -- Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Hastert, and Harry Reid -- and I'm gonna ask people if they know who they are. And you know what I bet? I bet you nobody knows. But I think -- look, I think for some, I think you've gotta accept -- and I want you to stay home on Election Day because you must accept the fact that your party has abandoned you. You've gotta accept the fact that your vote doesn't matter anyway. So all you Democrats, stay home. So, you know, why don't you stay home on Election Day? This is how the press is going to report this: "Hannity says Democrats should stay home on Election Day." After all, your vote won't change who occupies the White House. Your candidates have absolutely no ideas how to win the war on terrorism. The only ideas that they espouse are ways to undermine the troops in harm's way and undermine their commander in chief while they're at war. Your candidates have no idea how to keep this economy strong.

[...]

They have no ideas except more tax-and-spend policies and rescinding the tax cuts that every American family has benefited from. They have no idea how to protect the border -- only solution they have there is to give us amnesty. They support open borders. In other words, the Democrats, if you listen to them beyond [former Rep.] Mark Foley [R-FL], beyond amnesty, beyond tax raising, beyond bashing Bush, they have literally not a single solitary policy or idea that's going to benefit this country, keep you safe, and make the country stronger. I don't think abandoning our troops on the battlefield or closing your eyes to enemy communications or listening to enemy communications in our country, or killing the economy, or supporting illegal immigration, I don't think that's something to run on. So I'm saying, for the sake of the nation, I think you Democrats should stay home. For you there's no reason to vote. But you Republicans out there, the ones -- there's enough people in this audience to make a real, significant difference in really key important states.

There is something very wrong with someone who advocates to people not to use their power to vote. It's downright unpatriotic. Hannity is free to disagree with people all he wants. To urge people not to use their ability to elect leaders is not surportive of freedom.

Katherine Harris Receives First Endorsement

We respect Katherine Harris for her integrity, her leadership, her political courage, and her tireless dedication to public service.

It's a shame that the editorial writer is not credited for penning that piece of misinformation. Harris did not tell her her staff (of Republicans) about a Justice Department subpoena. I could go on and on. What's the point. What I'm waiting for is her concession speech. I'm expecting her to perform a theatrical public meltdown; not seen since Nixon's defeat to Kennedy.

Jim Davis Losing the Democratic Base

I have never seen a Governors' race in which a candidate had so much of his base defect to the other side. Case in point is Jim Davis.

"For thirty-six years I've supported every Democratic nominee for governor of Florida,'' begins the e-mail from Miami public relations consultant Seth Gordon. "But this November I'll break this tradition and support my Republican friend Charlie Crist.''

Sigh.

There also is the possibility that Charlie Crist will take black voters away from Davis. Crist polled at 23 percent in a Florida Chamber of Commerce poll and 20 percent in the Quinnipiac University poll. That way seem small. But it's fatal for an underdog Democrat like Davis.

It's easy to see why Crist has been making inroads with blacks. He has been trying and Davis has been fumbling. Charlie Crist has met with Martin Anderson's parents. Jim Davis still hasn't. Davis's meetings with black community leaders has not gone any better.

At a recent meeting with black leaders up in arms about violence, Davis declined to endorse their petition drive to repeal a law backed by the National Rifle Association. It could have been a powerful moment with the parents of Sherdavia Jenkins, a 9-year-old girl gunned down in July as she played on her front porch in Liberty City.

''We gave Jim a chance to latch on to something that's like a dagger in the heart of this community. He failed to capitalize on it.'' said the Rev. Anthony Dawkins, one of the leaders of the petition drive.

If his staff didn't know about the petition drive before the meeting then they're bad. Candidates can't walk into these things snowballed.

I have a feeling many Democrats will regret backing Crist. I can't say that Davis would actually care about their concerns. That's why the troops are defecting.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

John Boehner and Jeff Trandahl Testify

House Majority Leader John Boehner is sticking to his story that he informed Dennis Hastert about the Mark Foley email. What makes matters worse is that he told the House Ethics Committee this.

"I made myself clear on the record for the last three weeks, and I told the ethics committee today the same thing that I've told many of you," Boehner, a Republican who has the House's second-highest post, told reporters after his testimony.

Hastert is using the Ronald Reagan defense and says he can't remember any conversations with Boehner about the Foley matter.

Former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl has not talked to the press. If what the inside sources are saying are true then Hastert's office is in big trouble.

A Republican aide close to Trandahl but not directly familiar with his testimony said the longtime House aide was in frequent contact with top Hastert aides, including counsel Ted Van Der Meid and chief of staff Scott Palmer, about the page program. The aide said he was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Habeas Corpus Gone

Your own, of course, yesterday, in signing the Military Commissions Act.

You spoke so much more than you know, Sir.

Sadly—of course—the distance of history will recognize that the threat this generation of Americans needed to take seriously was you.

We have a long and painful history of ignoring the prophecy attributed to Benjamin Franklin that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Ed Helms Vs St Petersburg Times

Pinellas County Democratic Party Chairman Ed Helms is angry at the liberal media. Helms sent out an email to his supporters (the few that are left) dissing the St. Petersburg Times.

"... Finally, please excuse the St. Pete Times for finally waking up and realizing that there is a strengthening Democratic Party in Pinellas that isn't interested in being their appendage. Ghandi described what is politically happening best: "First they ignore you; then they laugh at you/humiliate you; then they fight you and then you win." It's safe to say that they are not ignoring me or us (although they ignore reporting anything positive like our being stronger now than the Republican Pa

With very best wishes and thanks for your commitment, I am

Yours sincerely,

Ed Helm

There is another attack on the St. Petersburg Times on penned by Jim Donelon. The PCDP is in full attack mode. Someone remind me to care.

Judge Hinkle Dismisses Martin Anderson Cover Up

In a ruling Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle dismissed an allegation in the lawsuit that Bay County Sheriff's officers and administrators at the Department of Juvenile Justice ''conspired'' to cover up the cause of death.

Hinkle also ruled the family could not recover punitive damages if a North Florida jury rules in their favor.

Softball With Bob Hite

The Washington Post took the Secret Service to count over the records of who has had access to the Vice President's office. Hite doesn't even even bother going into the details for his audience. Hite asks, "What's that all about." Cheney goes into his spiel about "some news organization" wanting records that don't belong to the Secret Service.

Hite: I see. You believe this is some fishing expedition of some kind, do you suspect?

Cheney: I believe it is.

Hite: I see.

It gets worse.

Hite: The old saying is "it's the economy stupid." Not too many Americans seem to be too concerned about the economy these days and they're kind of concentrating more on rather important issues such as the war and what have you. The one thing Republicans seem to have going for them is a booming economy. Is it frustrating to you that the focus doesn't seem to be on that at all?

Apparently, Hite hasn't seen the President's horrible approval ratings on the economy. There is also the deficit and shrinking middle class. But hey great economy. Hite then tells Cheney that the White House doesn't seen to be getting "credit in the media."

The interview moves on to Iraq. Hite then grows a spine. Hite notes that the violence has increased in Baghdad with the increase of troops. Cheney goes into the talking points about elections and not cutting and running. Hite then tells Cheney that he heard that most troops are "behind the wire." Cheney goes back to talking about the Iraqi elections and drops Al Qaeda. No man has pumped the Iraq equals Al Qaeda meme so badly.

Hite asks what Cheney plans to do about Social Security. The Vice-President mentions 2005 townhall meetings. (Wow!) Cheney does not mention the words private accounts.